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Destined to war from very infancy

O flower of all that springs from gentle blood

Not without heavy grief of heart did He

Pause, courteous Spirit !-Balbi supplicates

By a blest Husband guided, Mary came.

Six months to six years added he remained

. 65

66

66

67

68

69

70

Epitaph in the Chapel-yard of Langdale, Westmoreland

Address to the Scholars of the Village School of

Elegiac Stanzas, suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle, in

a Storm, painted by Sir George Beaumont

Elegiac Verses, in Memory of my Brother, John Words-

worth, Commander of the E.I. Company's Ship the

Earl of Abergavenny, in which he perished by Cala-

mitous Shipwreck, Feb. 6, 1805

Sonnet

Lines composed at Grasmere, during a walk one Evening,

after a stormy day, the Author having just read in a

Newspaper that the dissolution of Mr. Fox was hourly

expected

Invocation to the Earth, February, 1816

Lines written on a Blank Leaf in a Copy of the Author's

Poem "The Excursion," upon hearing of the Death

of the late Vicar of Kendal

Elegiac Stanzas. Addressed to Sir G. H. B. upon the

Death of his Sister-in-Law

Elegiac Musings in the grounds of Coleorton Hall, the seat

of the late Sir G. H. Beaumont, Bart.

Written after the Death of Charles Lamb

Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg .

Inscription for a Monument in Crosthwaite Church, in the

102

THE PRELUDE, OR GROWTH OF A POET'S MIND;

Book

I.

Introduction.-Childhood and School-time. 115

II. School-time (continued)

136

151

171

186

205

230

VIII. Retrospect.-Love of Nature leading to Love

INSCRIPTIONS.

I.

IN THE GROUNDS OF COLEORTON, THE SEAT OF SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT, BART., LEICESTERSHIRE.

1808.

[IN the grounds of Coleorton these verses are engraved on a stone placed near the Tree, which was thriving and spreading when I saw it in the summer of 1841.]

THE embowering rose, the acacia, and the pine,
Will not unwillingly their place resign;

If but the Cedar thrive that near them stands,
Planted by Beaumont's and by Wordsworth's hands.
One wooed the silent Art with studious pains:
These groves have heard the Other's pensive strains;
Devoted thus, their spirits did unite

By interchange of knowledge and delight.

May Nature's kindliest powers sustain the Tree,
And Love protect it from all injury!

And when its potent branches, wide out-thrown,
Darken the brow of this memorial Stone,
Here may some Painter sit in future days,
Some future Poet meditate his lays;
Not mindless of that distant age renowned
When Inspiration hovered o'er this ground,

VOL. V.

The haunt of him who sang how spear and shield ·
In civil conflict met on Bosworth-field;

And of that famous Youth, full soon removed
From earth, perhaps by Shakspeare's self approved,
Fletcher's Associate, Jonson's Friend beloved.

II.

IN A GARDEN OF THE SAME.

[THIS Niche is in the sandstone-rock in the winter-garden at Coleorton, which garden, as has been elsewhere said, was made under our direction out of an old unsightly quarry. While the labourers were at work, Mrs. Wordsworth, my Sister, and I used to amuse ourselves occasionally in scooping this seat out of the soft stone. It is of the size, with something of the appearance, of a Stall in a Cathedral. This inscription is not

engraven, as the former and the two following are, in the grounds.]

OFT is the medal faithful to its trust

When temples, columns, towers, are laid in dust;
And 'tis a common ordinance of fate

That things obscure and small outlive the great:
Hence, when yon mansion and the flowery trim
Of this fair garden, and its alleys dim,
And all its stately trees, are passed away,
This little Niche, unconscious of decay,
Perchance may still survive. And be it known
That it was scooped within the living stone,-
Not by the sluggish and ungrateful pains
Of labourer plodding for his daily gains,

But by an industry that wrought in love;

With help from female hands, that proudly strove To aid the work, what time these walks and bowers Were shaped to cheer dark winter's lonely hours.

III.

WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT, BART., AND IN HIS NAME, FOR AN URN, PLACED BY HIM AT THE TERMINATION OF A NEWLY-PLANTED AVENUE, IN THE SAME GROUNDS.

YE Lime-trees, ranged before this hallowed Urn,
Shoot forth with lively power at Spring's return;
And be not slow a stately growth to rear
Of pillars, branching off from year to year,
Till they have learned to frame a darksome aisle;—
That may recal to mind that awful Pile

Where Reynolds, 'mid our country's noblest dead,
In the last sanctity of fame is laid.

-There, though by right the excelling Painter sleep
Where Death and Glory a joint sabbath keep,
Yet not the less his Spirit would hold dear
Self-hidden praise, and Friendship's private tear:
Hence, on my patrimonial grounds, have I
Raised this frail tribute to his memory;
From youth a zealous follower of the Art
That he professed; attached to him in heart;
Admiring, loving, and with grief and pride
Feeling what England lost when Reynolds died.